


Out of Element

by Duchesse



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Comfort, Depressive Episode, F/M, M/M, Other, Reader Insert, Self Insert, reader interactive, shiro is such a sweet lover fight me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-25 14:39:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12038004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duchesse/pseuds/Duchesse
Summary: You are a medic originally from Earth. Despite your expertise, the technological marvels of Castle of Lions has put you out of your element. Shiro notices.[Takashi Shirogane/Reader].





	Out of Element

“There you are.”

At the sound of the metallic doors hissing to a close and the confident, steady strides approaching, you raised a fist to your lips and feigned a cough to give yourself the chance to dab at your sore eyes. You remained anchored before an erect cryo-replenisher, staring into the empty capsule with semblance of yearning in your eyes reflecting back at you. 

You gave the slightest flinch when a pair of hands came to rest on your shoulders, fingers bare with the faintest scars still noticeable. Perhaps you had made your stress too obvious as his fingers massaged your shoulders gently as the warmth of his lips touched your cheek.

“Takashi, I heard from Allura that you guys just got back. Shouldn’t you be taking it easy?” you asked calmly, mustering an even tone and to lean into delicate kiss as his arms suddenly wound your body to hold you flush to him. 

“You always catch me off-guard when you call me by my name,” was his lighthearted reply, garnering your attention enough to offer a small smile. “I’m worried about you. You spend way too much time in here.”

With a scoff, you lifted his arms and stepped out of the embrace to raise another one of the cryo-replenishers and your rag from the floor. “I am a medic, Takashi. How is it unusual for someone like me to be here?”

Shiro crossed his arms and followed behind you, observing your lethargic swiping motions across the dome covering the capsule. This wasn’t like you and you both knew it. “For one, you stopped eating with everybody else. Coran told me you asked to have your meals brought to your room… or  _here_.”

You blew a raspberry and sprayed the dome twice before wiping it. “Man, I should’ve known better than to leave a secret with him.”

“Besides that,” Shiro said softly, taking a few tentative steps forward, “I hardly get to see you anymore. Between my duties to the team and you being here, I just feel like we’ve drifted apart.”

“Isn’t this just another pretty, nice way of saying something else?” you hadn’t meant for your tone to be so accusing, but now you had reached your limit. Months of these feelings and stress festering below the surface had taken it’s toll. At first, you could show your comrades a mask and a doll of what they had grown accustom to, now that had chipped away and shattered into fragments, everything was spread wide as a blueprint for all to see.

“What are you talking–”

Finally facing that it was pointless, you turned towards Shiro and tossed your rag across the stasis bay. “It’s all just pretty talk, Takashi. I know how useless I am to all of this stuff. All of it! Why am I here?!”

Shiro’s arms fell limp to his sides, eyes wide as he looked at your face, truly, for the first time in a long while. Your skin was dull and seemed to have aged you far more than you wanted to acknowledge, the delicate skin around your eyes was simultaneously puffy and sunken, eyes irritated and red. 

This was another reason you had wanted to distance yourself. Who would want to look at you as you were? Food, drink, and rest had become foreign to you in a desperate pursuit of knowledge, of a sheer innate desire to matter and contribute more than as a smiling face. Shiro was the last person you wanted to see you like this.

“Wh-what happened? What have you done to yourself?” Shiro took a step forward, you countered with three steps back. “Have you been crying? Damn… when was the last time you slept? Ate? Answer me!”

“You don’t get it!” you exclaimed, gesturing to the entirety of the stasis bay. “This is why this is all happening, Takashi! I’m useless here. I can’t do anything. I am a medic who’s irrelevant because of these damn machines. I can hardly fight, I can’t pilot a ship. I can’t contribute to anything.”

When Shiro didn’t reply, your lingering flame of hope was snuffed. His eyes faltered, shifting to the metallic floor as he clenched his fist where it bled white. Perhaps a part of you still had clawed and groveled onto whatever fragment of hope there was left, and now that had ripped away from you as well.

Shiro was there when you felt the weight of a world drag you to the floor, his arm securing you tightly to him as you both collapsed on the stairs.

“I hate all of this. I wasn’t meant to be here, Takashi. I was meant to be at the Garrison with all of those kids, sending them to their dorms when they puked during simulations, or handing out their medications. Treating scrapes, burns, headaches, colds, fevers.” Your rasped, folding the fabric of his vest in your fist as you buried your face into his chest.

“I know…” Shiro switched arms, cradling the back of your head with his regular hand. 

“This is all beyond me. I’ve been studying and studying and studying… I want to go back to Earth. I want to go  _home_.” He could barely distinguish what you were saying with your face hidden from him, but he merely perched his chin atop of your head.

Shiro closed his eyes, managing a few quivering breaths to settle his nerves. 

“I know…”


End file.
